DESCRIPTION: An adaptive and augmentative communication (AAC)system will be developed using standard PC compatible computer components. Using a standard computer rather than specialized hardware will allow the system to be produced less expensively and interfaced with a wide range of peripherals and standard expansion cards for applications such as environmental control. High quality voice output will be available using multimedia capabilities for synthesized and recorded speech. All of the utility of a personal computer (such as word processing, information management, and Internet access) will be available to users of the AAC system. The interface will be highly customizable to allow the system to be configured for individual users. Rate of communication will be enhanced using context information to predict words and phrases based as text is entered. In addition to context, language structure, and recency and frequency of word usage will also be used to improve predictive capability and increase the rate of text entry.